Our people

Prior to joining higher education, Chris worked extensively across the National Health Service at local and national level and brought about transformational change and embraced the use of technology to improve patient care and positive outcomes 

In parallel with his professional career, Chris is an Executive MBA alumnus of the University of Bradford and continues to be research active by undertaking the DBA doctoral programme with a portfolio including organisational culture, change management and ethical transformational leadership.  He lectures in Managerial Leadership and Leadership for Change.

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He was previously a Professor of Digital Governance at the Business School in Brunel University, London where he held several leadership roles.

Prior to his academic career, Prof Weerakkody worked in a number of multinational organisations, including IBM UK.

He has a successful track record of Research and Enterprise and has secured numerous research grants from funding bodies such as the European Commission (FP7 & H2020), Economic and Social Research Council, Qatar Foundation and UK Local Government.

His R&D expertise spans several disciplines including, management decision making, ICT evaluation, public administration, social Innovation and process transformation.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Government Research and a Handling Editor for Information Systems Frontiers. He is a Chartered IT Professional and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Professor Sankar Sivarajah joined the School of Management at University of Bradford in December 2017 as a Reader in Technology Management and Circular Economy. He is currently the Interim Head of the School of Management and in January 2020 he was succesful in receiving the position of Chair in Technology Management and Circular Economy.

Prior to this role, he was a Lecturer in Operations and Information Systems Management and a Senior Research Fellow at the Business School in Brunel University London. His current research interests include exploring the emergent role of digital technologies in the circular economy, information systems evaluation, social innovation and e-Government.

He is an investigator of several multi-million-pound R&D projects funded by the European Commission (FP7, H2020, Marie Curie) addressing societal challenges surrounding themes such as Energy Efficient Smart Cities, Green Data Centres, Social Innovation and Participatory Budgeting. He actively publishes in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Business Research, Information Systems Frontiers, Computers in Human Behaviour and Government Information Quarterly and is also invited member of editorial advisory board of journals.

His research has been featured in leading media/trade publications such as Computer Weekly, PublicFinance, UKauthority etc. He has a PhD in the area of technology evaluation from Brunel University London. Prior to his PhD, he was awarded a MSc in Management with distinction from Cass Business School (CASS), City University of London and a first-class honours BSc degree in Business and Management (Computing) from Brunel University. He was also awarded by CASS an honorary membership to the Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) society, an international honour society recognizing business excellence.

He is a member of British Academy of Management (BAM) and Association for Information Systems (AIS). He is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Profile coming soon...

Nigel is a former Head of Channel Management and Head Of Customer Loyalty for the Financial Services Division of HBOS where he first discovered customer journey mapping. In 2014 he launched Simply Customer Ltd to bring the benefits of journey mapping and customer experience improvement to SMEs.

Having worked with the University on an innovation project, and being an active member of the School of Management’s KTN, Nigel understands not only how the University can help local businesses, but also how local businesses can help the University!

As a Community Fellow, his focus is on bringing local businesses and the University closer together to learn and help each other.

Ruby is a highly successful Solicitor with over 27 years’ experience in the legal field. She has over 25  years ‘ experience both in public and private sectors as a Non-Executive Director and also has various Chair positions in the community. 

As a Faculty Community Fellow she feels she is able to play an important role to inspire, motivate and present opportunities for students and staff to engage with the community which will strengthen and connect the community, the University and the City of Bradford.

Her aspiration is to work in collaboration with both staff and students to promote engagement with different stakeholders within the community. This will give opportunities for students within the faculty to further  their employability and gain invaluable skillsets to become successful and confident in their chosen career paths, whilst engaging in higher education.

Aamnah Rahman works as a Research Fellow (Community Engagement) at the Bradford Institute for Health Research. In one of her previous roles she worked as an Access and Widening Participation Officer at the University of Bradford so strongly connected to understand the needs of the community and positioning this within the university. 

She has many years of experience of working with communities through her roles within the NHS, education, community and voluntary sectors and realises the importance of building rapport and trusting relationships with communities for the long term.  

As a Faculty Community Fellow Aamnah sees her role will avail opportunities for the community, organisations and business, current university staff and students to work more collaboratively to create a 'Community University' which will be a great asset for the city.  She sees this working two ways; the university will benefit by recruiting and harnessing the talents that are out in the community and in return the community will have a well equipped and skilled workforce to meet the demands of the city.  

Dr Mohammed Iqbal is a retired Healthcare Manager who has worked for some of the biggest global pharmaceutical companies over the last 35 years, including Novartis and AstraZeneca and has served as a Non-Executive Director on a variety of NHS organisations in the Bradford District over the last 15 years and is a member of the University of Bradford Council.

Mohammed takes a deep interest in current affairs and follow social, cultural and political developments locally, nationally and internationally very closely and belongs to a dynamic global religious community, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.  He has contributed widely to many of the Community’s innovative projects and initiatives locally and nationally.

As a passionate ‘Bradfordian’ and UK citizen Mohammed is keen to play an active role in addressing the challenges that face the City and the Country. A strong believer in leading by example and that the best route to organisational success is through collaborative working and empowering individuals to excel.  On that note Mohammed feels that the University is one of Bradford’s strongest institutions and plays a key role in giving Bradford recognition and respect on a national and international platform.

As a Community Fellow Mohammed wants to ensure that he can provide all the support and direction to University colleagues which will help the University to meet the many challenges it faces. He is keen to see the University play a leading role in the social and economic regeneration initiatives across Bradford and the Yorkshire Region and deeply committed to building bridges between different cultures and faith groups within the city and across the world, using the expertise within the University to make Bradford a ‘Model City’ for the UK and the world.